Markets start new series on a positive note

Snapping two days of continuous sell off, Indian equity benchmarks have kick started the new F&O series on a positive note. Sentiments turned upbeat after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), with an aim of fast-tracking infrastructure development, set deadlines for steps to implement key projects covering sectors like railways, highways and power. However, the up-side remained capped after Crisil, the global rating agency revised downwards its GDP growth forecast for India to 5.5 percent this fiscal from its earlier estimate of 6 percent, citing reduced likelihood of monetary easing going forward due to falling rupee.

Global cues too remained mixed with the US markets ending modestly higher in last session but the trade remained lackluster, extending the trend seen over the past few sessions. While, Asian markets were trading mixed at this point of time with Japanese Nikkei declining to its two-week low, as selling accelerated on the back of a firmer yen and disappointing quarterly earnings from the likes of Canon Inc and Advantest Corp. Meanwhile, strengthening Yen also weighed on exporter shares.

Back home, on the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by capital goods and oil and gas, while fast moving consumer goods remained the lone losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 784 shares on the gaining side against 442 shares on the losing side while 55 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19892.47; about 87 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19804.76, and has touched a high and a low of 19907.45 and 19794.94 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19878.15, up by 73.39 points or 0.37%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 61.20% stocks advancing against 34.50% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap down by 0.45% and Small cap indices up by 0.53%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.30%, Capital Goods up by 1.19%, Oil & Gas up by 1.19%, Consumer Durables up by 0.94% and Health Care up by 0.82%, while FMCG down by 0.54% was the sole loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.38%, Jindal Steel up by 2.03%, L&T up by 1.81%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.42% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.41%.  On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever  was down by 3.38%,  Maruti Suzuki was down by 2.00%, Coal India was down by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel was down by 0.80% and TCS was down by 0.80% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has recently issued another Presidential directive to state-owned Coal India to enter into fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with power plants for a capacity of 78,000 MW. Still out of the total 131 power plants, 52 of are yet to sign FSA with State-owned CIL, long after the passing of the second deadline set by the Prime Minister’s Office for signing of FSAs by early this year. Only 79 power plants, so far, have entered into the fuel supply agreements with CIL.

The 52 power firms had earlier this year, failed to meet the second deadline set by the PMO for signing FSAs. PMO had in December last year directed that the remaining FSAs should be signed within a month’s time. The directive in December, 2012 came after the November, 2012 deadline for signing of FSAs was missed.

Last year, the Coal Ministry had issued a Presidential directive for the first time to CIL to sign FSAs with the power producers assuring them of at least 80 per cent of the committed coal delivery. Earlier, some power firms including NTPC had refused to enter into FSAs with CIL over quality issues of the dry- fuel supplied to it. NTPC had also stopped payment to Coal India’s subsidiary -- Eastern Coalfields. Responding to that, the world’s largest coal miner had temporarily stopped supply of fuel to NTPC which was resolved later following government’s intervention. Uptill now, NTPC and CIL have inked FSAs for 28 units, with one remaining. While, the companies are yet to complete FSA for a 500 MW joint venture thermal power plant of NTPC and SAIL at Bhilai.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,937.95; about 30 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,907.50, and has touched a high and a low of 5,944.50 and 5,913.70 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,938.25, up by 30.75 points or 0.52%. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cements up by 3.13%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.31%, DLF up by 2.23%, Jindal Steel up by 2.19% and IDFC up by 1.93%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.39%, Coal India down by 2.00%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.86%, PNB down by 1.86% and TCS down by 0.94% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 16.45 points or 0.81% to 2,004.72, Jakarta Composite slipped 3.82 points or 0.08% to 4,670.30, Nikkei 225 tumbled 369.23 points or 2.54% to 14,193.70 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 16.01 points or 0.20% to 8,147.57.

On the flip side, Hang Seng rose 9.45 points or 0.04% to 21,910.41, KLSE Composite increased 1.04 points or 0.06% to 1,809.46, Straits Times added 4.25 points or 0.13% to 3,239.93 and Seoul Composite was up by 3.38 points or 0.18% to 1,912.99.